We are living in a dark era; a time filled with deception and fear...the twin gate-posts of hell. Trim the wick and light your lanterns. Seek the truth, shine the light into the darkest of corners, to continue the Revolution of Light and watch the cockroaches run for cover.

When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its latest report in early February, it was greeted with shock: 'World Wakes to Climate Catastrophe,' reported an Australian paper. But global warming is by now a scientific field with a fairly extensive history, and that history helps set the new findings in context -- a context that makes the new report no less terrifying but much more telling for its unstated political implications.

Although atmospheric scientists had studied the problem for decades, global warming first emerged as a public issue in 1988 when James Hansen, a NASA scientist, told Congress that his research, and the work of a handful of other scientists, indicated that human beings were dangerously heating the planet, particularly through the use of fossil fuels. This bold announcement set off a scientific and political furor: many physicists and chemists played down the possibility of serious harm, and many governments, though feeling pressure to react, did little to restrain the use of fossil fuel. 'More research' was the mantra everyone adopted, and funding for it flowed freely from governments and foundations. Under the auspices of the United Nations, scientists and governments set up a curious hybrid, the IPCC, to track and report on the progress of that research.